The quick hit

This computer-generated version of the story of Exodus skims over the story's high points but misses its dramatic arc. The animation appears low-tech, though some of the voice-over performances are strong. Grade: C-

Now playing in Orange County

One of the greatest and most filmable stories from the Bible earns a perfunctory animated treatment in this new "The Ten Commandments," a movie that won't make anybody forget Charlton Heston or "The Prince of Egypt."

A big-name voice cast doesn't cover for a script that may hit the Biblical high points but somehow misses the dramatic heart of the story.

It's about the Israelites in Egypt, the baby saved from a Pharaoh's vengeance by floating off in a basket, a boy raised as a prince until he discovers his heritage and his conscience and fights against the cruel treatment of his people by their slave-masters.

Christian Slater is the voice of Moses, a guy more than happy to wrestle and goof off with his adoptive cousin, Ramses (Alfred Molina, very good). The first thing the script gets wrong is making Ramses a Moses-hater since childhood. The usual way of telling the tale is making Moses and Ramses close, so that their falling-out is part of the dramatic tension. They're never close here.

Moses kills a slave-driver, goes into exile, hears the Voice of Elliott Gould (as the Almighty) in the burning bush, and marches off with four words on his lips.

"Let my people go!"

Plagues come, seas part, and the Children of Israel prove to be fickle, even when stone tablets in God's own hand show up. You know the story.

Ben Kingsley narrates with the proper gravitas. But Slater doesn't have the heft, at least in vocal terms, to pull off playing Moses.

But even though Moses isn't played by a carrot, the filmmakers certainly could have used a little "Veggie Tales" humor in this dour, "by the book" treatment of a tale that has stood the test of time, and how.

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